O-287 the Road to Inclusion: The Contribution of Supervisory Diversity Competence and Organizational Diversity Management in Predicting Inclusion and Positive Job Outcomes – Evidence From a Longitudinal Online Survey

Introduction In the organizational literature, there has been a recent shift from diversity to inclusion. Empirical results showed that diversity did not always lead to positive outcomes. In order to flourish, employees with different backgrounds need to feel included. Building on the job – demands resources model and the positive psychology, we aim to investigate whether supervisor diversity competence and organizational diversity management predict positive job outcomes (work engagement, performance, organizational citizenship behavior and innovative work behavior) indirectly via employee inclusion. Methods We investigated these relationships in a three-wave online survey study with 967 respondents (time lag of 4 months between subsequent measurement points). We ran a longitudinal autoregressive mediation model using MPlus. Results We found a significant positive relationship between organizational diversity management at Time 1 and inclusion at Time 2. Additionally, we found a significant positive relationship between inclusion at Time 1 and work engagement, performance and organizational citizenship behavior at Time 2. We did not find any significant relationships for innovative work behavior and for any of the variables across Time 2 and 3. No mediation effects were found. Discussion Our hypotheses were partially confirmed. Organizational-level policies regarding diversity and inclusion do contribute to employees’ feeling of inclusion. Inclusion in turn relates to positive job outcomes. Future research may replicate and extend these findings in a larger and more heterogeneous population. Conclusion Our findings contribute to the scientific knowledge on inclusion in the workplace and inform policy makers about strategies to improve inclusion at work.